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Your Guide to the Best Things in San Diego, 2024 | San Diego Magazine

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Your Guide to the Best Things in San Diego, 2024 | San Diego Magazine


By Danielle Allaire, Sara Clemence, Beth Demmon, Randy Dotinga, María José Durán, Leorah Gavidor, Cherie Gough, Mateo Hoke, Troy Johnson, Lili Kim, Marissa Kozma, Kai Oliver-kurtin, Nicolle Monico, Cole Novak, Amanda Parmele, Will Riddell, Amelia Rodriguez, Jay Smith, and Claire Trageser

A solar eclipse may have blocked out most of SD’s legendary sunlight a few months back, but our city is shining brighter than ever. Michelin bestowed a constellation of stars on our always-innovative food scene.

The city’s sports fever heated up, drawing two more pro teams to the landscape. Locals joined hands to pull a few beloved institutions from the brink (see Coop’s and The Harp). A mega revamp of a particular iconic North Park hotel beckoned hordes of visitors—and a gazillion international eyes. Even orcas want to live here.

And when disaster struck—catastrophic flooding, especially in the county’s most under-resourced areas—San Diegans came together to save and rebuild the lives of those impacted. Courageous residents helped rescue grandmas. GoFundMes got funded. Volunteers scooped away water and cleared debris.

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Then, we kept pushing this place forward, creating community and starting small businesses and making more and more cool things. Here are over 100 of the coolest of them. Check ’em out, then go forth and make your own list. Or start your own thing. This town’s big enough for all of us.

Food & Drink | Arts & Culture | Retail & Shopping | Health & Fitness | Kids & Family | Reader’s Picks


Courtesy of the Gaslamplighter

Best Upgraded Take on Your Fave Dive

Gaslamplighter

Gaslamplighter is more than a glammed-up karaoke palace with a not-hyped-enough burger (a double-stack of juicy Wagyu beef served in a O’Brien’s strikes again. One of the Louis Vuitton knockoff). It’s a fifth-generation San Diego success story. Owner Frankie Scuito’s great-great-great grandparents opened San Diego’s first first deli with a liquor license, and his uncle and dad brought us the dark, cozy karaoke icon The Lamplighter. For the sister concept, Scuito and his brother put in ultra-upscale roaring-’20s décor, enlisted the city’s top cocktail minds, and garnered all the Gloria.


San Diego Futbol Club soccer player standing on Snapdragon Stadium ahead of their inaugural 2025 season in the MLS
Courtesy of San Diego FC

Best Team That Hasn’t Won A Single Game… Yet

San Diego FC

Soccer and San Diego are pretty tight right now. That bond will continue to grow when San Diego FC joins MLS in 2025 as the league’s 30th team. The club will look to cultivate homegrown talent like local teenage goalkeeper Duran Ferree) and give San Diego its first major sports championship since 1963. Oh, and one more thing: The Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation, a part-owner of the club, is now just the second Native American tribe in the country to have an ownership stake in a pro sports team.


Best of San Diego 2024 featuring an aerial view of the $1 Billion Chula Vista Bayfront Project
Photo Credit: Cole Novak

Best Bay-utification

Don’t get us wrong—roadwork and city renovations aren’t always our idea of positive news (especially when they add 15 minutes to our commute to work). But this $1.2 billion bayside project in Chula Vista is promising to be worth leaving the house a little earlier. Scheduled for completion in 2025, the redevelopment will include a new park, resort, convention center, RV resort, and residential area, creating space for locals and visitors to enjoy Chula Vista to the fullest.


The Best of San Diego 2024: Health & Outdoors featuring Fit4Mom fitness classes for mom's post childbirth
Courtesy of Fit4Mom

Best Postpartum Power-lift

Fit4Mom

Held outdoors in the fresh air, Fit4Mom’s stroller-based classes incorporate resistance bands and structures like stairs, curbs, and walls to get mamas moving. Headquartered in San Diego, the fitness company has eight franchise locations across the county and more than 250 nationwide. Especially popular among new mothers on maternity leave and stay-at-home parents with young kids, Fit4Mom is a great avenue to make mom friends, seek parenting advice, and ease back into exercise postpartum.


Best of San Diego 2024 Kids & Family featuring Coastal Roots Farm in Encinitas
Courtesy of Coastal Roots Farm

Best Day in the Dirt

Coastal Roots Farm

Everyone needs to get their hands dirty sometimes. Thursday, Friday, and Sunday mornings, parents cart their little ones to Coastal Roots nonprofit Jewish community farm in Encinitas for Nature Play. Designed for kids ages zero to 10 and their families, the program is run by farm staff, who oversee interactive storytime, animal encounters like feeding chickens, and other sensory activities, including play in the outdoor “kitchens.” Afterward, stop by their pay-what-you-can farm stand (those in need can get up to $30 of produce free) to take home organic veggies and herbs.


Best of San Diego 2024 Reader's Picks featuring the Little Italy farmer's market
Courtesy of Little Italy Mercado

See our reader’s top picks across the city





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San Diego, CA

Military bases in San Diego County increase security following Iran attacks

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Military bases in San Diego County increase security following Iran attacks


SAN DIEGO (CNS) – Military bases in San Diego County and nationwide have increased security measures due to last weekend’s U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran, prompting traffic delays near base entrances, enhanced ID checks and access restrictions.

The Naval Air Station North Island on Coronado ports three aircraft carriers, including the San Diego-based USS Abraham Lincoln, which led some of the first-wave attacks on Saturday.

Naval Base Coronado warned motorists of possible traffic delays at all base entry points due to the increased security measures.

Targets included Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps command and control facilities, Iranian air defense capabilities, missile and drone launch sites and military airfields.

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The U.S. operation, dubbed “Epic Fury,” and Israeli operation, “Raging Lion,” began striking targets at 1:15 a.m. Eastern Time Saturday.

As of Tuesday, at least six U.S. service members had been killed in action.

The strikes also killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei, who had been Iran’s supreme leader since 1989, making him the longest-serving head of state in the Middle East.

Iran’s offensive forces claimed to have struck USS Abraham Lincoln with ballistic missiles, but according to an X post from U.S central Command, “The Lincoln was not hit. The missiles launched didn’t even come close. The Lincoln continues to launch aircraft in support of CENTCOM’s relentless campaign to defend the American people by eliminating threats from the Iranian regime.”

Those with concerns regarding the heightened security can contact San Diego County’s Office of Emergency Services at 858-565-3490 or oes@sdcounty.ca.gov.

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Copyright 2026, City News Service, Inc.





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SD Unified moves forward with layoffs of classified employees

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SD Unified moves forward with layoffs of classified employees


SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Less than 3 weeks after the San Diego Unified School District finalized a new contract with teachers, the school board voted unanimously on Tuesday to move forward with layoff notices for other district employees.

The layoffs affect classified employees — workers who are employed by the district but are not teachers and are not certified. That includes bus drivers, custodians, special education and teacher aides, and cafeteria workers.

The district says it is eliminating 221 positions — 133 that are currently filled and 88 that are vacant — to save $19 million and help address a projected $47 million deficit for the next fiscal year.

Preliminary layoff notices will go out on March 15, with final notices by May 15.

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The district estimates about 200 classified employees will receive preliminary notices, but of them, about 70 are expected to lose their jobs based on union-negotiated bumping rules.

Bumping allows employees with more seniority to move into another position in the same classification, thereby “bumping” a less senior employee out of that role.

Lupe Murray, an early childhood special education parafacilitator with the district, said the news came as a shock after the teacher strike was called off.

“When the strike was called off, I’m like, ‘Yes!’ So then when I got the email from the Superintendent, I’m like, ‘Wait, what?’ So, I think everyone was shocked,” Murray said.

The district says it sends out annual layoff notices, as all districts in the state do.

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Before Tuesday’s board meeting, classified employees rallied outside, made up of CSEA (California School Employees Association) Chapters OTBS 788, Paraeducators 759, and OSS 724. They were joined by parents, students, and the San Diego & Imperial Counties Labor Council, AFL-CIO.

Miguel Arellano, a paraeducator independence facilitator with San Diego Unified and a representative of San Diego Paraeducators Cahpter 759.

“What do we want? No layoffs! When do we want it? Now!” the crowd chanted.

Arellano said he felt compelled to act when he learned about the potential layoffs.

“The first thing that went through my mind was that I need to speak up. I need to protect these people,” Arellano said.

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Inside the meeting, the board heard emotional, at times tearful testimony from classified employees before voting unanimously to move forward with the layoff schedule.

Superintendent Fabi Bagula said the district has tried to protect classrooms from the cuts.

“We have tried our best to only, I mean, to not touch the school. Or the classroom. But now it’s at the point where it’s getting a little bit harder,” Bagula said. “What I’m still hoping, or what I’m still working toward, because we’re still in negotiations, is that we’re able to actually come to a win-win, where there’s positions and availability and maybe even promotions for folks that are impacted.”

Arellano warned the layoffs could have a direct impact on students.

“We are already spread thin, so, with more of a case load, it’s going to be impossible to be able to service all the students that we need to have,” Arellano said.

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Follow ABC 10News Anchor Max Goldwasser on InstagramFacebook, and Twitter.

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.





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Scripps Oceanography granted $15M for deep sea, glacier science

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Scripps Oceanography granted M for deep sea, glacier science


The Fund for Science and Technology, a new private foundation, granted Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego $15 million for ocean science Tuesday.

FFST, funded by the estate of the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, was started in 2025 with a commitment to invest at least $500 million over four years to “propel transformative science and technology for people and the planet.”

“Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego is pushing boundaries for exploration and discovery across the global ocean,” Chancellor Pradeep Khosla said. “This visionary support from the Fund for Science and Technology will enable Scripps researchers to advance our understanding of our planet, which has meaningful implications for communities around the world.”

The grant, the largest of its kind since Scripps joined UCSD in 1960, will go toward research in three areas: monitoring of environmental DNA and other biomolecules in marine ecosystems, adding to the Argo network of ocean observing robots, and enhancing the study of ocean conditions beneath Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier, often referred to as the “Doomsday Glacier.”

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Scripps Institution of Oceanography has used Argo floats for more than two decades to track climate impacts in our oceans. NBC 7 meteorologist Greg Bledsoe reports.

“The Fund for Science and Technology was created to support transformational science in the search of answers to some of the planet’s most complex questions,” said Dr. Lynda Stuart, president and CEO at the fund. “Scripps has a long tradition of leadership at the frontiers of ocean and climate science, and this work builds on that legacy — strengthening the tools and insights needed to understand our environment at a truly global and unprecedented scale.”

Scripps Director Emeritus Margaret Leinen will use a portion of the grant in her analysis of eDNA — free-floating fragments of DNA shed by organisms into the environment — in understudied parts of the ocean to collect crucial baseline data on marine organisms, according to a statement from Scripps.

“In many regions, we know very little about the microbial communities that form the base of the ocean food web or that make deep sea ecosystems so unique,” Leinen said. “Without data, we can’t predict how these communities are going to respond to climate change or what the consequences might be. That’s a vulnerability — and this funding will help us begin to address it.”

Using autonomous samplers that can collect ocean water for eDNA analysis, as well as conventional sampling, scientists will use tools to “reveal the biology of the open ocean and polar regions.”

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According to Scripps, the international Argo program has more than 4,000 floats that drift with currents and periodically dive to measure temperature, salinity and pressure. Standard floats can record data up to depths of 2,000 meters (6,560 feet), while newer Deep Argo floats can dive to 6,000 meters (19,685 feet).

The grant funding announced Tuesday will allow for Scripps to deploy around 50 Deep Argo floats along with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory.

Sarah Purkey, physical oceanographer at Scripps and Argo lead, said this leap forward in deep ocean monitoring comes at a crucial time because the deep sea has warmed faster than expected over the last two decades.

Thwaites Glacier is Antarctica’s largest collapsing glacier and contains enough ice to raise global sea level by roughly two feet if it were to collapse entirely. According to Scripps, prior expeditions led by scientist Jamin Greenbaum discovered anomalously warm water beneath the glacier’s ice shelf — contributing to melting from below. Greenbaum now seeks to collect water samples and other measurements from beneath Thwaites’ ice tongue to disentangle the drivers of its rapid melting.

This season’s Antarctic fieldwork will “test hypotheses about the drivers of Thwaites’ rapid melt with implications for sea-level rise projections,” the statement from Scripps said.

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“The ocean holds answers to some of the most pressing questions about our planet’s future, but only if we can observe it,” said Meenakshi Wadhwa, director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography and vice chancellor for marine sciences at UCSD. “This historic grant will help ocean scientists bring new tools and approaches to parts of the ocean we’ve barely begun to explore.”



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